Music Tech Monday: Creating drum beats and bass lines with your face

NYU held their ITP Winter Show on December 15th and 16th, where graduate students in the two-year program presented projects that exemplified their understanding of communication and technology. Many of the innovations at the presentation used Kinect. Max Ma and Tony Lim used a more intricate approach in creating Touchless, a face-operated controller that allows users to create music without hand or finger interaction.

The Touchless technology contains cameras and sensors that track parts of your face to extract data. This translated data technology can eventually be used to unlock your door by blinking; but for Max’s current purpose, this data allows users to create music. Under proper conditions, the sensor picks up between 16 and 64 points on your face, using those movements to create musical samples.

Image via Consumer Lab

With this device, the main movements of tilting your head, opening your mouth, and raising your eyebrows can create sound. Depth was created by the addition of a Leap Motion sensor that was turned into a controller for a software synthesizer. All samples and beats are created by movements above the neck, while when you wave your hands in the air, you can then play a melody over the rhythm section.

This invention will be a great learning tool for children who are starting to play music. Touchless will eventually be available to purchase in stores. 

Story via Engadget